Nov 20, 2025 Our recent event brought together key innovators to discuss the profound impact of 3D technologies on pediatric cardiology. We dove into how 3D printing, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) are transforming pre-surgical planning, intraoperative care, and patient outcomes, drawing on insights from five industry and clinical leaders. These technologies are providing clinicians, patients, and their families with a new dimension of understanding, enhancing the accuracy of pre-surgical planning, refining intraoperative procedures, and improving patient outcomes and education. Here’s a recap of our event, now available on-demand in 3DHEALS Courses.
How are 3D printing innovators using creativity to advance pediatric cardiology?
Medical 3D printing is an art form, enriched by the creative expression of 3D printing innovators and the growing landscape of tools to create in 3D. There’s no doubt that 3D-printed anatomical models must be true to a patient’s anatomy for them to be practically useful, but, as Nicholas Jacobson showed us, it takes an artistic viewpoint to make these prints a reality.
Jacobson, Co-Founder of Tangible Industries, has been using his training as an architect and artist to inform his innovations in 3D printing for pediatric cardiology and other areas of medicine.
One project he’s worked on is printing absolutely stunning models of blood flow through the heart using 4D flow cardiovascular magnetic resonance (4DCMR). Using a Stratasys PolyJet printer, the hearts are fabricated such that each voxel (or 3D pixel) can be a different color, enabling Jacobson to create models that show blood flow velocity as streamlines printed as a beautiful gradation of colors. This allows clinicians to visualize dynamic flow over time in 3D, even while holding a static model.
Cardiac 3D printing is now moving towards creating physical representations of these more complex forms of imaging data, enabling clinicians to visualize areas of concerning flow before a procedure. However, turning new imaging modalities into usable prints isn’t easy, as Jacobson’s paper shows that printing blood flow is both a scientific and artistic challenge.
The artistic choices of color saturation, printing material opacity, and blood flow line thickness all play a factor in how easily a viewer can understand what’s going on in a print. After all, it’s the role of the artist to figure out how best to color an artwork so that their intended message is conveyed to the audience, and medical 3D printing is no different.
Fundamentally, 3D printing innovators are artists. How do we take a patient’s heart and turn it into a model that clearly tells clinicians and patients its story? What do we want viewers to feel and see? For Jacobson, leveraging this artistic side of medical 3D printing is leading him to create models that go beyond static anatomy, showing us that there are many more unexplored avenues if we take a look at the field from a different perspective.
How is augmented reality (AR) transforming pediatric cardiology?
One key advantage of 3D modeling is its role in patient and family education. Clinicians can now use 3D models of a pediatric patient’s heart as a rich visual representation to more easily explain complicated medical information to parents, which helps to alleviate concerns and keep parents informed.
Dr. Ravi Ashwath, Professor of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and Division Chief of Pediatric Cardiology at Christus Children’s Hospital, shared one of his studies comparing 3D-printed models, 3D virtual models, and 2D imaging for explaining cardiac anatomy to patients and family members. The study finds that both types of 3D models – printed and virtual – improved patient knowledge of cardiac anatomy and were more preferred compared to viewing 2D echocardiograms. However, the difference between printed and virtual models wasn’t as clear.
3D virtual models can have a tremendous impact on patient education, serving as a lower-cost alternative because they do not require printing physical materials. Dr. Ashwath described their workflow for efficiently delivering virtual models: users can scan QR codes to view augmented reality (AR) models of a patient’s heart directly on their smartphones.
While not yet used in routine clinical work, this QR code system could one day provide all parents of pediatric heart patients with virtual heart models that improve their understanding of their child’s condition and reduce anxiety about entering a world filled with medical jargon and unfamiliar concepts.
(Watch the full video to get the QR codes.)
Dr. Ashwath shows the power of making 3D modeling easily accessible to more people. As 3D models play a larger role in the clinic, it will be critical to make this technology more accessible so that as many individuals as possible can benefit from it. How can we make the workflow from imaging to AR as efficient as possible? How will we increase access to devices for viewing these models, especially in resource-limited settings?
How is mixed reality improving surgical outcomes for pediatric cardiology?
3D printing innovators know how to bring people together. Look no further than Dr. Shafkat Anwar, Co-Founder and Medical Director of the UCSF Center for Advanced 3D+ Technologies (CA3D+). Since the founding of CA3D+ in 2018, Dr. Anwar has brought experts across the university’s expansive clinical network under one umbrella to collaborate on making 3D technologies a reality for patients.
Dr. Anwar described a case of a 5-year-old pediatric patient having a pseudoaneurysm and only a single ventricle, with poor ventricular function and seizures. Even under tight time constraints, Dr. Anwar demonstrated how he used the EchoPixel platform to turn the patient’s CT scans into a mixed-reality model, allowing him to view the patient’s anatomy in 3D and create virtual cut planes to plan where the surgeons needed to intervene.
Collaborating with the surgeons in the operating room, Dr. Anwar helped them plan out the surgery using the models. They were ultimately able to remove the several clots they had identified. The patient’s cardiac function recovered, and the patient left the hospital in two weeks, even though they initially estimated a 50% chance of death in the OR. This was just one of many stunning examples of how Dr. Anwar has brought 3D technologies to fruition, augmenting the traditional surgical workflow to improve outcomes.
By bringing clinicians together to use CA3D+ technologies, Dr. Anwar exemplifies what it means to be a 3D innovator: bringing people together to disrupt traditional medical workflows and explore the potential of new technologies to transform lives. Now, he’s celebrating the recent opening of a 2nd 3D printing lab to expand CA3D+’s reach and is working on helping others start their own labs by providing recommendations in a soon-to-be-released paper.
You can read more in his review on 3D printing and chapter on 3D modeling.
Where is 3D modeling for pediatric cardiology headed next?
Dr. Jenny Zablah is no stranger to bringing augmented reality (AR) into the operating room. Dr. Zablah, an Interventional Congenital Cardiologist and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and her team have printed over 800 hearts for patient experience and education, and now, she’s using AR to guide surgical procedures.
Using the HoloLens, she described viewing 3D models of a heart and an implant valve during a surgery, which were then projected onto another monitor for the primary surgeon to view. Dr. Zablah could then manipulate the models for the surgical team, helping to guide the surgery from the side to maintain a level of separation between AR and the traditional surgical procedure.
Figuring out how to successfully integrate 3D modeling into practice is no easy feat, but Dr. Zablah is making significant strides to bring this technology into the OR. The evolving landscape of AR platforms means innovators must carefully consider the lifespans of the devices they invest in, especially amid product discontinuations and the rise of newer, more sophisticated devices. The weight and unfamiliarity of wearing such headsets during surgery are also critical factors.
Another challenge will be to integrate different forms of imaging modalities into virtual 3D modeling. For example, Dr. Zablah showed combining live echocardiograms with CT scans in virtual reality (VR) using the Artiness platform, which can be used during a procedure. Ensuring proper alignment across modalities in real time, especially given imaging noise and differences in equipment across hospitals, will be a significant obstacle.
It will be helpful moving forward to create shared, standardized protocols that many institutions can use to ensure the highest quality in their 3D models. Dr. Zablah has already contributed extensively to this effort through a review of VR for echocardiograms and several case studies. Having an open-source library of hearts, stents, and other models that specialists can easily augment for each case can also help to accelerate adoption. For example, having a library of implantable pulmonary valve frame models can help more hospitals use VR for patient screening.
Finding ways to implement workflows and share models across multiple institutions in a cost-effective, timely manner will be essential to advancing 3D technologies in pediatric cardiology. Going from zero to what Dr. Zablah has achieved at any new hospital will require anticipating ways each step in the AR workflow could go wrong and having a reliable set of solutions. This scalability challenge won’t be easy, but Dr. Zablah’s work is already paving the way forward.
What 3D modeling tools are being used for pediatric cardiology?
For 3D modeling to be successfully implemented in the clinic, we need robust software tools that are easy for clinicians to pick up and start using. Automatic segmentation is a game-changer in this field, bringing 3D models to patients faster with less hassle. Listen below as Sarah Ptashnik, Medical Account Manager at Materialise, shared how 3D modeling is being used in pediatric cardiology to provide models for surgical planning and patient education.
What we’re thinking
Thinking and innovating in 3D requires both science and art, shaped by strong collaboration, personal drive, and the ability to touch the hearts of patients and their families. It is truly incredible to witness the impacts these speakers have had on the lives of so many patients and how 3D technologies are playing an increasingly influential role in the standard of care. We are excited to see what our speakers will do next, so join us live at our upcoming events to stay up to date in this field by subscribing to 3DHEALS.
Glossary
- 4DCMR = 4D flow cardiac magnetic resonance, an imaging technique used to visualize blood flow
- AR = augmented reality, 3D models that are overlayed onto a real-world camera feed
- VR = virtual reality, 3D models presented in an immersive environment
- CT = computed tomography
About the Author:
Peter Hsu
Peter Hsu is an editorial intern for 3DHEALS. He is currently an undergraduate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and studies bioengineering with a focus on cell and tissue engineering. He is also minoring in computer science with interests in artificial intelligence and image processing. Peter conducts research on using computer vision methods to analyze human tissue images and improving the robustness of machine learning workflows. He is interested in the use of AI to assist tissue engineering and bioprinting research for medical applications. He is passionate about science communication and leads STEM outreach lessons at schools in the central Illinois area.
Relevant links:
Event Recap: 3D-Printed Devices In Orthopedics
Event Recap: Microfluidic Devices and 3D Printing
Expert Corner: AI in Healthcare 3D Printing: The Future is Now
Microfluidic Devices and 3D Printing (On Demand, 2025)
Event Recap: 3D Printed Pharmaceuticals
Event Recap: Where is 3D printing for orthotics and prosthetics (O&P) headed next?
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